The present invention is directed toward printers and methods for controlling printers. More specifically, the present invention is directed toward electronic printers capable of operating using a plurality of printer languages and methods of controlling electronic printers capable of operating using a plurality of printer languages.
The electronic printers are controlled by a plurality of parameters. The various components or, respectively, units of the printer are thereby placed into different conditions dependent on the desired information output.
WO-96/02872 A, for example, discloses an electrophotographic high performance printing system having a plurality of units. DE-41 264 65 C1 discloses a control means that connect a EDP system to such an electrophotographic high-performance printer.
The parameters for driving the printer units can vary dependent on the desired print images. For example, horizontal shifts of the print image, various toner types according to color or recording density, etc., can be set, or the printing width can be adapted to a predetermined or, respectively, pre-printed form that is to be printed with individual data of the EDP data source by the printer.
For initializing a printer or when changing the printer from one job of a first type to another job of a second type, it is necessary to read certain setting parameters into a volatile main memory of the printer device controller, for example the length and the width of the paper introduced into the printer; and information as to whether the paper is to be printed single-sided or double-sided; information for saving the contrast for example by selecting specific fixing parameters such as fixing temperature or wrap angle when fixing an electrophotographically produced image on the paper. Added thereto is that the print data that are conducted from an EDP system to a printer can be encoded in a number of possible printer languages or, respectively, emulation modes. Examples of such printer languages or, respectively, emulation modes are ASCII, I-Mode, C-Mode, T-Mode, E-Mode, L-Mode, PCL4-Mode or PCTL5-Mode. Such printer languages and measures for recognizing these printer languages are disclosed, for example, by U.S. Pat. No. 5,222,200 A.
In some electrophotographic high-performance printers, setup data sets are therefore written into the main memory of the printer controller, these corresponding to the desired printer settings and a respective, specific printer language to be processed. Such a printer is disclosed by JP 08-2025152 A. In such printers, it is necessary to load a new setup data set into the main memory when a different setting is desired or when the printer language to be processed changes.
Given high-performance printers that are to be operated in a network, whereby, thus, print requests from the greatest variety of data sources are distributed to a plurality of printers working in parallel in the same data network, it is extremely complicated to place them into a respectively required setting because a great number of parameters are to be set given high-performance printers.
WO 96/01456 A1 discloses a printing system having a host computer and at least one physical printer. Print data are thereby sent from the host computer to a virtual printer type and are printed out by the physical printer that supports this virtual printer type. To that end, various system settings are provided in the physical printer, these being respectively allocated to different virtual printer types. What is thereby disadvantageous is that each standard printer setting appears to be a separate printer for the user.
WO 96/18142 A discloses a printer device and a printing method wherein various printer languages are recognized, whereby a rastering process of the print data is controlled dependent on the recognized printer language. What is disadvantageous given this method is that, after recognizing a printer language, the printer device switches into a standby condition and waits for further inputs of the user before a printout can ensue.
An object of the invention to specify a printer and a method for controlling a high-performance printer wherein the printer can be adapted relatively simply to the greatest variety of print demands and whereby optimally few adaptations need be undertaken during printing operations.
This object is achieved by the invention comprising features of patent.
Inventively, a setup data set that contains both language-independent control data as well as control data for a plurality of different printer languages is loaded into a main memory of an electronic printer controller.
Compared to the solutions of the prior art, the invention achieves the advantage that the printer controller can have the stored data available to it very quickly from its non-volatile main memory, which has short access times. In a printer system wherein data of different printer languages must often be processed during permanent operation, the printer then very quickly automatically adjusts to modify the languages. On the other hand, the loading of a specific setup data set with language-independent control data such as paper width, type of printing, single-sided or two-sided, fixing device parameters, etc., allows these data to be preserved when the printer language of the incoming data changes. The coupling of these two data types (language-independent and language-dependent) in one and the same setup data set also allows an untrained user to switch relatively simply between setup settings of various types and to thereby retain the compatibility with various printer languages.
Preferably, the setup data set to be loaded is selected from a plurality of different setup data sets that respectively contain different language-dependent control data and/or different language-independent control data.
A high-performance printer is preferably modularly constructed, whereby a device controller is provided for controlling the various unit controls and a control panel unit is provided that is connected to the device controller for exchanging data. Given this embodiment, various setup data sets are stored in the control panel unit, a desired setup data set being loaded therefrom into a main memory of the device controller. Upon reception of print data in a specific print language, the control data corresponding to the print language of the setup data set loaded in the main memory are inventively employed for controlling the printer.
Preferably, a detector means automatically determines the printer language in which the print data are present. Since it can also occur that no setup data set is selected by the user during the course of a printer initialization, it is provided in a further, preferred exemplary embodiment to connect the device controller to a non-volatile memory from which a default setup data set can be loaded. When the detector means for the printer language determines that the user has not selected any setup data set, then the device controller automatically uses the data of the default setup data set.
In an embodiment, the present invention provides a method for controlling a printer comprising the following steps: (a) generating a plurality of setup data sets including a first setup data set corresponding to a first printer language and a second setup data set corresponding to a second printer language, each setup data set comprising language-independent control data and language-dependent control data, (b) loading the language-independent data and the language-dependent data of the first setup data set corresponding to the first printer language into a main memory of an electronic printer controller, (c) during ongoing printer operation, monitoring a print data stream and detecting a change in printer language from a first printer language to a second printer language, (d) loading the language-dependent control data of the second setup data set into the main memory of the electronic printer controller.
In an embodiment, step (a) further comprises storing a third setup data set comprising voice-dependent data of a plurality of printer languages into a main memory of a control panel unit, and step (d) further comprises loading the language-dependent control data of the second setup data set from the main memory of the control panel unit to the main memory of the electronic printer controller.
In an embodiment, step (a) further comprises storing the plurality of setup data sets into a main memory of a control panel unit and step (d) further comprises transferring the language-dependent control data of the second setup data set from the main memory of the control panel unit to the main memory of the electronic printer controller.
In an embodiment, step (a) further comprises storing the plurality of setup data sets into a hard drive of a control panel computer and step (d) further comprises transferring the language-dependent control data of the second setup data set from the hard drive of the control panel computer to the main memory of the electronic printer controller.
In an embodiment, step (b) further comprises transferring the language-independent data of the first setup data set from a main memory of a control panel unit into the main memory of the electronic printer controller.
In an embodiment, step (d) further comprises loading the language-independent control data of the second setup data set into the main memory of the electronic printer controller.
In an embodiment, step (c) further comprises detecting the printer language of the print data with a detector means.
In an embodiment, the present invention provides a printer for printing out data streams of various print languages, the printer comprising: a printer controller comprising a main memory in which control data can be stored, the printer controller receiving a print data stream, a control panel comprising a main memory with a plurality of setup data sets stored therein, each setup data set corresponding to a different printer language, each setup data set comprising language-independent control data and language-dependent control data, a data bus connecting the printer controller to the control panel, setup data sets being transferred from the main memory of the control panel to the data bus to the main memory of the printer controller, a detector for monitoring the print data stream and determining the printer language, the detector being connected to the control panel and sending a signal to the control panel when the printer language in the print data stream changes, the control panel transferring a new setup data set to the printer controller upon receipt of one of said signals from the detector.
In an embodiment, the main memory of the printer controller further comprises a predetermined default setup data set transferred from a non-volatile memory of the printer controller.
In an embodiment, the main memory of the control panel further comprises a user-defined setup data set.
In an embodiment, the printer controller is connected to a plurality of unit controls of the printer.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from reading the following detailed description and appended claims, and upon reference to the accompanying drawings.